LYBURN - A proposed grand opening date of June 16 has been tentatively set for the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation Authority's Boone County Trailhead-Visitor's Center.

HMRRA Executive Director Jeff Lusk said that the building is close to completion leaving only hook ups for water and sewage necessary for completion.

"The building itself is doing nicely," Lusk said to members of the Field Operations Committee in May. "We are working on getting a nice sign up on the bank welcoming people coming in from 119."

Lusk said people in Boone County wanted to call the facility the Boone County Trail System but that name was a bit confusing as eventually there will be more than one system in Boone County.

'We will call it the Little Coal River Trailhead," Lusk said.

Lusk said a second trail system for Boone County could be located across the road from the current trailhead and discussed a proposed 4x4 park for Boone County as well. Lusk said the Ivy branch property across the highway from the new Boone County Visitors Center has been inventoried and there are already 40 miles of trails there being used by drivers of Jeeps, Hummers and other four wheel drive vehicles for off roading purposes.

Fekete said that while the property might be considered too easy for ATV riders it would make a perfect 4x4 park, and idea which had been discussed under previous director Matt Ballard who listened in on the meeting via a telephone conference.

Dan Simmons asked about the formerly proposed Kanawha County 4x4 park and Ballard said the land owner of the property there was still interested in just such a venture.

"We have a problem in Boone County," Lusk said. "We don't have enough acreage, and we are landlocked. But this idea would give us something in that area for a lot of people to do something a bit different."

Lusk said the property is also close enough to Charleston for the 4x4 crowd to have more urban amenities available to them.

Lusk said the current Boone County ATV path is not rough enough to suit many ATV riders and that the authority "needs to find another area in Boone County to put in another ATV system."

Lusk noted that systems connected to towns seem to do well, but a second Boone County trailhead would not be needed as a park and ride set up would do, similar to the set up for Madison County. Lusk pointed out that the most popular trail system to date, Gilbert doesn't even have an actual trailhead.

"Yet it is by far our most heavily visited system," Lusk said. "We really need to look at all of our existing systems and look into what we can do to bring them all up to the same level of parity and give the public reason to visit them and keep coming back to them."